[stupidstrawman]Furthermore, it's obvious for everyone that the Western powers, the most progressive, free and developed countries on Earth, the paragon of human evolution, have all the rights to rule the world for the benefit of their subjects. Their progressiveness brings them tremendous superiority over uncivilized inferior nations, like Russia. They have the right to decide what's right and what wrong, who lives and who dies, and their supremacy is justified and unquestionable. Truly, a thousand-year Reich reign of liberal democracies is upon us.
[/stupidstrawman]
The Russian/Belarusian/New Russian model of authoritarian dictatorship, with many of the hallmarks of Fascism (militarism, social conservatism, populist ultranationalism, "strong" authoritarian leadership that can fight corruption and "make the trains run on time", paternalism/masculism etc), is no alternative to Liberal Democracy, as much as I disagree with Liberal Democracy.
I'm also going to do something I don't think I ever do. I'm going to go full Godwin. As much of a social no-no as it is I feel this particular image is important in relation to Russia and Guardian G.I. in particular.
Think of it what you will.
Siberian artist: “We give away our resources and get piles of dumb laws in return”
It is the beginning of disintegration of Russia
I fully support them in this endeavor. Russia is not a "federation", it's a unitary state with various "Republics" and autonomous regions created to satisfy restive nations that lie within the Russian sphere of influence. If Russia was a true federation then Siberia would be its own autonomous republic with full control over its own natural resources. I think that might actually help prevent West Russians from polluting the land and over-exploiting it as they do currently.